Grants:APG/Proposals/2019-2020 round 1/Wikimedia Serbia/Impact report form

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Purpose of the report[edit]

This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their results to date. For progress reports, the time period for this report will the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June of the current year). For impact reports, the time period for this report will be the full 12 months of this grant, including the period already reported on in the progress report (e.g. 1 January - 31 December of the current year). This form includes four sections, addressing global metrics, program stories, financial information, and compliance. Please contact APG/FDC staff if you have questions about this form, or concerns submitting it by the deadline. After submitting the form, organizations will also meet with APG staff to discuss their progress.

Global metrics overview - all programs[edit]

We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees' programs. Please use the table below to let us know how your programs contributed to the Global Metrics. We understand not all Global Metrics will be relevant for all programs, so feel free to put "0" where necessary. For each program include the following table and

  1. Next to each required metric, list the outcome achieved for all of your programs included in your proposal.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome.
  3. In addition to the Global Metrics as measures of success for your programs, there is another table format in which you may report on any OTHER relevant measures of your programs success

For more information and a sample, see Global Metrics.

Overall[edit]

Participants Newly registered Content pages Usage of multimedia files Partnerships
Education Program
Wikipedia in schools
Accredited seminars
Edu Wiki camp
1,443 (out of 1,400 planned) 1,420 (out of 1,200 planned) 2,045 (out of 1,900 planned) 206 (out of 300 planned) 37 (out of 50 planned)
GLAM Program
Wiki-librarian
Wikipedian in residence
Wiki Loves GLAMers
255 (out of 250 planned) 12 (out of 70 planned) 6,545 (out of 2,600 planned) 2,135 (out of 1,160 planned) 19 (out of 20 planned)
Community Support Program
WikiLive
Competitions on Wikipedia
Microgrants
Animation of community
380 (out of 350 planned) 40 (out of 180 planned) 13,701 (out of 10,500 planned) 4,537 (out of 4,040 planned) 19 (out of 20 planned)
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 2,078 (out of 2,000 planned) 1,472 (out of 1,450 planned) 22,291 (out of 15,000 planned) 6,878 (out of 5,500 planned) 75 (out of 90 planned)

Telling your program stories - all programs[edit]

Please tell the story of each of your programs included in your proposal. This is your chance to tell your story by using any additional metrics (beyond global metrics) that are relevant to your context, beyond the global metrics above. You should be reporting against the targets you set at the beginning of the year throughout the year. We have provided a template here below for you to report against your targets, but you are welcome to include this information in another way. Also, if you decided not to do a program that was included in your proposal or added a program not in the proposal, please explain this change. More resources for storytelling are at the end of this form. Here are some ways to tell your story.

  • We encourage you to share your successes and failures and what you are learning. Please also share why are these successes, failures, or learnings are important in your context. Reference learning patterns or other documentation.
  • Make clear connections between your offline activities and online results, as applicable. For example, explain how your education program activities is leading to quality content on Wikipedia.
  • We encourage you to tell your story in different ways by using videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g.), compelling quotes, and by linking directly to work you produce. You may highlight outcomes, learning, or metrics this way.
  • We encourage you to continue using dashboards, progress bars, and scorecards that you have used to illustrate your progress in the past, and to report consistently over time.
  • You are welcome to use the table below to report on any metrics or measures relevant to your program. These may or may not include the global metrics you put in the overview section above. You can also share your progress in another way if you do not find a table like this useful.
Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year (projected or actual) Comments
Example Example Example Example Example

Overview[edit]

Although 2020 was a challenging year in terms of all offline activities and project implementation opportunities, almost all planned metrics of three WMRS’s programs have been achieved and largely exceeded. The only discrepancy can be seen regarding newly registered users within the GLAM Program and the Community Support Program, which occurs due to the impossibility of conducting some of the training, workshops or lectures. Although online training was organized, this was not equal to our regular offline activities. For example, edit-a-thons were not possible for most of the year. As a consequence of the pandemic, there is a smaller number of cooperations, but this aberration is not concerning. Many activities in external projects were adapted and focused on online work (input of articles and multimedia content), which explains the large excess of this planned metric. This measure of success was also greatly influenced by microgrants. Six microgrant projects were accepted in 2020, and they resulted in 5063 photos on Wikimedia Commons and 613 articles on Wikipedia.

All activities were carried out virtually and gave good results. Trainings and workshops within the Education Program were realized initially by sending video material, and then through the Zoom platform. The contribution to Wikidata is increasingly present within this program and there are also presentations at numerous gatherings that bring together teachers and professors. The first online EduWiki camp was also organized. The only thing that was not feasible were accredited seminars, whose online performance had to be approved by Institute for Advancement of Education (State Institute for professional development of the teachers). Within the GLAM program, great success was achieved within the 1lib1ref campaign, and for the first time, a six-month Wikipedian in residence (WIR) was arranged. Although we didn’t have financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Information, it supported the WIR project with a letter of recommendation and thus helped us reach numerous cultural institutions. The Community Support Program included three competitions that were unhindered, and projects that received microgrants were also successful. A local Wikipedian conference was not possible, but online gatherings were organized, as well as communication training.

During 2020, Wikimedia Serbia conducted the process of developing the Strategy of organization. The process itself was comprehensive and involved community participation. The community was familiar with all the steps of the process and could evaluate the previous strategy, as well as give feedback regarding the future goals and activities of the organization. The transparent process also includes analyses that are important for setting the future path of the organization. Three focuses stood out as the most important:

  • Collection of free content that aims to gather free material of different formats through various activities and projects of the organization. Within this direction, the organization will have several strategic lines, among which are the strengthening of Wikimedia projects in the educational system, in the academic community and in cultural institutions, emphasizing that the tools and content will be even more accessible and approachable. There is also diversity in terms of editors and content, which will permeate through a number of activities.
  • Cooperation and networking with other organizations and institutions which we believe is necessary in order to develop the organization and use common goals and resources in order to reach as many people as possible and achieve good results.
  • Community support represents a wide range of activities that are realized in order to provide support to community members. This focus is set in order to enable the expansion of our network of volunteers, to reduce the gap between Wikipedians and Wikimedians, as well as to strengthen the community towards reaching of the common goals.

Wikimedia Serbia didn’t have changes in Board structure in 2020, except for the appointment of a new vice president, because the mandate of the previous one expired. During the year, twelve meetings were held, and it is important to note that, starting in March, they were held online, due to the declared epidemic of the coronavirus. For this reason, most of the topics were related to moving the work of the organization and planned projects to an online format, so that the community could remain strong and motivated, and the planned metrics could be achieved. The organization is stable, so the budget for 2021 remained the same. Wikimedia Serbia received the full amount of requested funds from the Wikimedia Foundation. It is also important to note that the Board, together with employees and professional external associates, worked on synchronizing the work of the organization with the new Law on Personal Data Protection (Serbian version of GDPR), in order to comply with all procedures for collecting, transmitting and storing data on Wikimedia Serbia’s members. For more efficient work of the organization, a novelty was introduced in the form of Working Groups, that aim to involve community members in project work. This model will be tested during 2021, and if it is successful, it will continue to be used in the future.

  Education Program

Wikipedia in schools

Goal: Introducing Wiki-projects to academic circles

Description: Students write their papers on Wikipedia or other Wiki projects, and in return receive points within their subject exams in school or university.

Accredited seminars

Goal: educating teachers to work independently in order to implement Wiki-projects in their institution

Description: project involves organization of accredited seminars Application of online wiki tools as a didactic means in teaching throughout Serbia. The seminars are accredited by the Institute for Advancement of Education (State Institute for professional development of the teachers) and teachers gain 8 points for professional development by attending it. These seminars are all-day workshop on how to edit Wikipedia and implement it in class. The seminars are designed exclusively for teachers.

Edu Wiki camp

Goal: recruit new Wiki ambassadors and education volunteers and strengthen connections between them

Description: The purposes of this camp are attracting new Wiki ambassadors, additional training of current ones, as well as strengthening the network of education volunteers. Camp program has many different topics, which involves editing Wikipedia training, manners of cooperation with educational institutions, technical skills regarding realization of Education program etc…

  Wikipedia in schools

The Wikipedia in schools project, which includes Wiki Gymnasium, Wiki student, Wiki-Scholar and other activities in educational institutions, involves training middle school, high school and university students to edit Wiki projects and write seminar papers on Wikipedia. Due to the nature of the project, the activities covered the first semester of the 2019/20 school year (September - January), second semester of the 2019/20 school year and part of the first semester of the 2020/21 school year (September - December 2020).

During 2020, a total of 55 workshops were held in primary, secondary schools and faculties. Activities that were realized in this period also are:

  • Introduction of Wikidata at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, which shows that Wikimedia Serbia is working on emphasizing this important project in educational institutions.
  • A professional meeting of teachers was held in the Regional Center in Knjaževac, which was organized by the Technical School from that city after the successfully completed project "Wiki treasury of my region". The project was realized after the participation of two teachers at the accredited seminar of Wikimedia Serbia in Niš, who wanted to join our projects and engage their students in a creative way by writing articles about their region on Wikipedia. The same project was presented at the digital conference "Digital Technologies" during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Wikimedia Serbia promoted the possibility of applying for its grants among secondary and primary school teachers at the State Seminar of the Serbian Mathematical Society. We wanted to present to the teachers the financial assistance we provide for all creative Wiki ideas, and thus increase the number of educational institutions that will apply on the call for projects.
  • Holding online workshops to students during the state of emergency in Serbia due to the coronavirus pandemic, in a way to adequately respond to the situation during which schools and faculties were closed. In partnership with the teachers, we have shown that in the changed circumstances we can maintain the planned activities and achieve the planned results.
  • Two actions of improving seminar papers on Serbian Wikipedia were organized in partnership with the community members. The first and the second actions were started in order to improve the content in Serbian Wikipedia and to bring the Educational Program closer to the members of the community. This meant improving seminar papers written in a bad style, reducing the number of unverified and unorganized articles written within the Education Program of Wikimedia Serbia.
  • A list of scientific papers and conferences at which our Educational Program was mentioned was published on the official Wikimedia Serbia website. The list was published in order to achieve a greater academic foundation for our activities and to increase their visibility.
  • We agreed with the representatives of GLAM Macedonia on holding a joint camp for high school students. However, this activity was supposed to be held in March 2020, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • An edit-a-thon was held on the occasion of the International Students' Day and the 15th anniversary of the Wikimedia Serbia's Education Program. The edit-a-thon was organized online with the aim of writing and improving articles related to education.
School Year Number of institutions Number of participants Number of edits on Wiki projects
Wikipedia pages Wikidata items Total
2019/2020 10 515 664 960 1.624
2018/2019 20 1.185 1.026 393 1.419
2017/2018 18 830 686 6 692
2016/2017 11 765 516 516
2015/2016 11 833 2.099 2.099
2014/2015 10 458 476 476
2013/2014 7 340 487 487
2012/2013 5 115 206 206
2011/2012 3 189 160 160
2010/2011 1 37 37 37
2009/2010 NA NA NA NA
2008/2009 NA NA NA NA
2007/2008 2 23 40 40
2006/2007 2 63 70 70

The table shows the growth of overall results on the Wikipedia in schools project. The results are presented according to school years, not according to calendar years, for easier calculation. Reduced number of project participants during the 2019/2020 school year is a consequence of the pandemic and the fact that schools were required to switch to online classes. As a result, not all of our traditional project partners participated in the same way as before. However, there is a noticeable increase in overall metrics in absolute values.

I liked the concept of Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia
Đorđe Ilić at one of the workshops
"I became a Wikipedian in March 2020, during my work on the course project and without any special prior training in writing articles, I was thrilled by the concept of Wikipedia as an online encyclopedia. My personal view is that knowledge must be free and available to everyone, and above all it must meet quality and reference standards. In accordance with that, Wikipedia has provided me with an efficient and unique tool for the promotion of free knowledge. I wanted to share my work by spreading free knowledge with my colleagues from the faculty and beyond, so I accepted the role of Wikimedia Ambassador at the Faculty of Philology. Within the faculty course named Information Literacy, as a course project, articles are written on Wikipedia within the field of philology, literature and culture. The scope of topics and freedom of writing articles, with the obligatory control over references and verification of articles, enables the spread of Wikipedia as a free encyclopedia, the creation of new potential Wikipedians and, of course, personally helps me achieve my goals in the scientific field."

Đorđe Ilić, student of the Faculty of Philology, Wiki ambassador

  Аccredited seminars

In the first half of the year, only two accredited seminars were held, due to the following coronavirus situation, the ban on gatherings and the closure of schools. Seminars were held at the Institute for Modern Education in Belgrade and Žikica Damnjanović High School in Smederevska Palanka. However, Wikimedia Serbia has overcome this with a reliable partnership with the Institute for Modern Education. Namely, this cooperation was continued by the organization of an online seminar for training the teachers to evaluate learning outcomes of students by using Wiki tools during the coronavirus pandemic. The aim of this seminar was to promote Wikipedia for educational purposes. The seminar was attended by 148 teachers via the Internet, throughout Serbia. The result of this seminar was cooperation with the elementary school "Vuk Karadžić" from Kruševac.

In the second half of 2020, Wikimedia Serbia received permission from the Institute for the Advancement of Education to conduct the seminar online, even though it was strictly accredited for live realization. Aware of the health situation and the fact that teachers need to improve, the Institute gave permission to Wikimedia Serbia to conduct the seminar online until further notice. As a result, two seminars have already been agreed, which will be realized in cooperation with the Institute for Modern Education during January and March 2021.

  Edu Wiki camp

Results of the evaluation of the Online EduWiki Camp 2020
Results of the evaluation of the Online EduWiki Camp 2020

The planned activities on this project were not realized due to the health situation and the ban on social gatherings. However, Wikimedia Serbia came up with the idea to organize an online version of this event. The Online Edu Wiki Camp was a three-day event held on October 24, 25 and 31, 2020 through the ZOOM platform. We decided to organize the camp this year in a changed format, because we realized that the camp is the project that brings us the most active volunteers and Wiki ambassadors. The program of Edu Wiki camp was diverse in terms of workshops and lectures. The focus was on getting to know the participants through various activities (energizers, team building activities, etc.) and on teaching participants about the Education Program and the possibility of their engagement in various projects within this program. Thus, the representatives of Wikimedia Serbia talked about Wiki-ambassadors, accredited seminars, grants for the projects and other important things. At the Online Edu Wiki Camp, we have enlarged the number of lecturers with Wiki Ambassadors and Edu Wiki Volunteers in order to increase the dynamics of the camp that is held over the Internet.




Successful stories[edit]

Application of Wikidata at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade

We decided to work with students on Wikidata because this project is recognized as a good way to improve students' skills by using new and open learning platforms. We wanted students to understand what Wikidata is and how to create Wikidata items, but also to learn how to group data. One of the biggest challenges in the workshops was the fact that so far we have not worked with students of the Faculty of economics on this project. However, this example shows that students understood the future of Wikidata and its application in the right way.

All computer science teachers of the Ninth Gymnasium in Belgrade joined the Wikipedia in schools project

The Ninth Gymnasium in Belgrade is one of the most reliable partners of Wikimedia Serbia, which is reflected in the fact that computer science teachers are including the Wikipedia project in the educational program every school year. School year 2019/2020. was specific because all of the computer science teachers, six of them, joined the project. Thanks to that, all students of the school went through workshops on editing Wikipedia, which shows that Wikipedia is recognized as an extremely useful tool in teaching. All groups of students wrote articles on various topics, some edited Wikipedia in code, and others in a visual editor, depending on the curriculum for a particular class. In particular, it should be noted that the teachers agreed to include the same workshops in the curriculum next year, while in the case of the fourth year students, the possible introduction of Wikidata into teaching is expected.

Challenges and lessons learned[edit]

Regional cooperation as an imperative

During the CEE conference held in Belgrade in 2019, the representatives of Wikimedia Serbia and GLAM Macedonia agreed to hold a joint activity in the form of a regional camp for high school students. Agreements on that continued during the beginning of 2020, when the details were specified, the camp program was made, the road plan and the participants were selected. Unfortunately, although the agreements went according to plan and we reached a final agreement on holding a camp in Northern Macedonia, we did not manage to realize the idea due to the closing of the borders. However, what we have all learned is that regional cooperation is possible, necessary and can be reported on projects which we are all already implementing. In that sense, this helped us understand that it is necessary to connect the region more. That is why we have not given up on the idea of ​​realizing the agreed camp at another time, when the conditions for that are met.

 GLAM Program

Wiki Loves GLAMers

Goal: Achieving cooperation with cultural institutions in order to increase the corpus of free knowledge, to create and improve the access to the cultural and historical heritage on the Internet, i.e. on Wiki projects.

Description: Release of materials by the institutions and individuals, digitization of content, organization of edit-a-thons and other similar activities.


Edit-a-thons

Goal: Increasing the content on Wikipedia on certain topic, in collaboration with culture institutions, that provide quality literature, or sources for creating articles.

Description: Joint work of volunteers and GLAM employees who edit articles on Wikipedia on a particular topic within one or more days. Cultural institutions provide literature and release materials for the illustration of written and improved articles.


Wikipedian in residence

Goal: Establishing various forms of cooperation with cultural institutions, digitization and release of different types of files, education of employees on free knowledge and free culture.

Description: One month engagement of a Wikipedian in one of the GLAM institutions. That person is working on digitizing, promoting the Wikimedia mission among employees, training staff for working on Wiki platforms etc.


Wiki-librarians

Goal: The goal is to motivate librarians to become successful editors of Wikipedia, to enable the expansion of a network of libraries and other cultural institutions and their acquaintance with the activities of Wikimedia Serbia, as well as the upload of quality and more informative content on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

Description: Organizing Wikipedia editing workshops designed for librarians who, for a successful course, receive legally required points for advancement in the field of librarianship.

  Wiki loves GLAMers

Results of 1Lib1Ref 2020
Results of 1Lib1Ref 2020
  • 1Lib1Ref campaign - Wikimedia Serbia, in cooperation with the University Library "Svetozar Marković" and the Belgrade City Library, started the GLAM year with great success. This time, the global reference editing campaign #1lib1ref ranked Serbia among the top wiki communities that added the largest number of references. A total of 30 participants in this campaign placed our wiki community in a high second place internationally. As many as 4052 references were entered in articles in which they were missing, while the five best campaign editors on Serbian Wikipedia were placed in the 10 best campaign editors in the world. During the campaign, two Wikipedia editing workshops were held, while the closing ceremony was held at the University Library „Svetozar Marković”.

Thanks to the successes in the Campaign, Wikimedia Serbia, in cooperation with the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Poland, worked on organizing the #1Lib1Ref campaign in the region of Central and Eastern Europe for 2021. The campaign strategy for the Central and Eastern Europe region was presented at the CEE meeting in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation. The strategy was also presented at the Campaign Office Hours organized by the Wikimedia Foundation, and a workshop was held for the organizers of the campaign in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, which was attended by 8 participants.

  • FindingGLAM - Wikimedia Serbia for the first time participated in the thematic week of adding data to Wikidata and thus began to improve the coverage of information and create the largest global database. Wikimedia Sverige has organized a thematic activity to add data of cultural institutions to Wikidata, which was supported by UNESCO. The aim of these activities is to supplement the data and create the largest database of cultural institutions and cultural heritage collections around the world. Participants contributed to this action with 469 data entered, 93 improved items, 3 new items and 59 added references to items. The participants in this action made a big step towards achieving the Wikidata mission and increasing the data on cultural institutions on the Internet.
  • The panel discussion "Public Property, Open Media, Open Knowledge" was held in cooperation with Creative Commons Serbia at the University Library „Svetozar Marković”. The focus of this panel was on the importance of the public domain in science, education, culture and art. The GLAM Manager and the Educational Program Manager presented their programs and their work in Wikimedia Serbia, as well as the way in which freedom of content is important in the digital world in which we live. Representatives of the National Library of Serbia and the University Library „Svetozar Marković” also participated and shared their experience with the public domain.
  • Cultural Heritage on Wikidata - Through occasional activities of adding data to Wikidata, we are slowly including this project among the editors. For this occasion, an Introduction to Wikidata and Instructions for editing Wikidata were made. This activity lasted from August 17 to 23 and during it 514 changes were made, 2 new items were created, 67 items were changed, and 7 editors participated.

  Wiki librarian

The well going project of the University Library „Svetozar Marković” received the support of Wikimedia Serbia this year, for the sixth time in a row. The goal of the project is to inform and educate librarians to become successful Wikipedians, as well as to expand the network of libraries and other cultural institutions and introduce them to the activities of Wikimedia Serbia, but also to post high quality and informative content on Wikipedia.

Wiki librarians were also the bearers of the #1Lib1Ref campaign this year, in which we won second place. During 2020, three edit-a-thons were organized: Serbian humorous-satirical periodicals of the 19th and 20th centuries, My street and The press of my district. Thanks to these edit-a-thons, 221 new articles were written, 16 were improved, and 880 files were uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons.

Wiki librarians established 8 partnerships with the Department of Librarianship and Informatics of the Faculty of Philology, University Library „Vlada Aksentijević” in Obrenovac, City Library "Karlo Bijelicki" in Sombor, the National Library of Serbia, The Matica Srpska Library in Novi Sad, National Library „Stefan Prvovenčani” in Kraljevo, The Museum of Theatrical Arts of Serbia and the Belgrade City Library.

Despite the challenges during the year due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was successful and a total of 372 articles were written or improved, while 1,040 files were posted on Wikimedia Commons thanks to the contributions of 150 project participants.

  Edit-a-thons

The coronavirus pandemic, the declaration of a state of emergency in Serbia and a complete change in the way we work, both us and the entire country, have significantly affected the ways of holding edit-a-thons. Until 2020, edit-a-thons involved editors gathering to write articles, exchanging ideas, holding Wikipedia editing workshops, and helping each other. Due to the ban on gatherings, one edit-a-thon on the topic of the importance of Serbian literature was postponed until further notice.

  • On the occasion of the International Museum Day, a one-week online edit-a-thon was held. This edit-a-thon was met with positive reactions from the editors and a record was set for the number of articles written within the edit-a-thons. As many as 58 new articles were written, 3 were improved, and 16 editors participated.
  • The edit-a-thon named Theater Stage on Wikipedia was held, during which 20 new articles were written thanks to 8 participants. We received important feedback on the topic of edit-a-thons, the necessary topics, but also the lack of photos on the Wikimedia Commons.
  • On the occasion of the Day of Librarians of Serbia, an edit-a-thon was held in cooperation with the University Library „Svetozar Marković”. In this edit-a-thon 15 editors took part, and 40 new articles were written, while 1 article was improved.

  Wikipedian in residence

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the change in the work of cultural institutions, the Wikipedian in residence projects started with later implementation or are postponed until further notice. In 2020, six projects were realized and a total of 289 new articles were written, 246 articles were improved, and 428 were illustrated. Total of 2465 files were uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons.

The realization of the project in cooperation with the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, planned for March, has been postponed until the normalization of the working conditions of educational institutions in Serbia.

Chronologically, during 2020, the following internships were realized:

  • National Museum of Toplice - During June and July, a Wikipedian in residence was stationed at the National Museum of Toplice, during which 34 new articles were written, 32 articles were improved, and 10 articles were illustrated. There are 597 photographs of archeological and ethnological, as well as regular exhibits of the Museum.
  • Society for Culture, Art and International Cooperation "Adligat" - During the first part of the project, held in July and August, 34 new articles were written, 30 articles were improved, and 14 articles were illustrated. There are 458 new files uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, including 3 books, of which 347 files were used to illustrate articles on Wikipedia. Due to the good cooperation, the members of Adligat also decided to donate files, and on that occasion, 26 additional photos were donated, that can be found in this category, while more donations are expected.
  • The Association of Fine Artists of Serbia - During this project, in September and October, work was done on the digitization of the catalog of the Association of Fine Artists of Serbia after the Second World War. In total 93 catalogs were digitized, while 88 articles were written about them, along with a workshop on editing Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
  • Belgrade City Library - In cooperation with the Belgrade City Library, we are organizing a six-month Wikipedian in residence project for the first time. The realization of the project is taking place from October 2020 to April 2021. During the first three months, 80 new articles were written and 199 articles were illustrated. Four books were digitized, while as many as 611 files were posted on Wikimedia Commons.
  • Society for Culture, Art and International Cooperation "Adligat" - Thanks to the great results and successful cooperation, we organized the second Wikipedian in residence at the Society Adligat during November and December. In the second part of the project, 40 new articles were written, 45 were improved, while 202 articles were illustrated. Additional 431 files were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, including 5 books. With an additional engagement, the wikipedian in residence released another 109 files of art scenes.
  • Cultural Center Rex - During December, another project was held at the Cultural Center Rex, during which 13 new articles were written, 16 articles were improved, while 3 were illustrated. 154 files have been digitized, including as many as 21 of their publications.
University Library „Svetozar Marković” has been collaborating with Wikimedia Serbia for seven years
Aleksandra Popović
"The rich funds of the libraries themselves, digitized publications of old postcards, important and rare publications which were unaccessible to the average user, as well as electronic sources of information are inexhaustible sources for creating reliable articles, verifiable facts and literature that contribute to enriching Serbian Wikipedia.

The University Library „Svetozar Marković” in Belgrade has been cooperating with Wikimedia Serbia for seven years and received funds under the Wiki Librarian grant. Our cooperation is expanding, not only between these two of our institutions, but also between libraries throughout Serbia. Within the Wiki librarian project, we cooperated with several cities in Serbia (Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Vranje, Kosovska Mitrovica, Bujanovac, Smederevo, Smederevska Palanka, Užice, Jagodina, Kruševac, Sombor, etc). Since this project is part of the GLAM program, in addition to libraries, we were joined by other cultural institutions, museums and archives. During the cooperation with Wikimedia Serbia, a Wikipedian in residence was realized three times at the University Library. At the very end, I would like to point out the dissemination of the project and the dissemination of knowledge about Wikipedia in the country and the region, as well as abroad at professional and scientific conferences. We believe that this is good and useful for spreading free knowledge, writing quality articles and enlarging the number of Wikipedians all over the world."

Aleksandra Popović, coordinator of Wiki librarian (UNILIB)

It is wonderful that so much effort is being invested to make the cultural heritage of our country more visible and accessible to everyone
Jovana Obradović
"Cooperation with Wikimedia Serbia is always a great pleasure for me. Within the GLAM program, in which I am participating for the second time, I had the opportunity to get to know the whole team better and to see how professional and responsive they are. It is wonderful that so much effort is being invested to make the cultural heritage of our country more visible and accessible to everyone, and it is always a great honor for me personally to contribute to that goal."

Jovana Obradović, Wikipedian in residence at Historical Archive of Pančevo and Belgrade City Library

Successful stories[edit]

Stability of Wikipedian in residence

Despite the initial challenges we faced, such as the closure of educational and cultural institutions due to the declaration of a state of emergency for two months, the second half of the year was successful judging by the results achieved. Depending on the evolution of the epidemiological situation, we adapted to the ways of project realization. We have introduced the possibility of working remote with occasional visits to a cultural institution for the purpose of digitizing content and using literature. Although the epidemiological situation in the second half of the year, for periods, was unfavorable, with application of epidemiological measures and an adjusted way of working we achieved great results.

The previous year primarily pointed out the importance of digitization and access to cultural heritage from our home, but also the possibility of adapting the way we work and implementing activities in a way that is safe for the health of all of us.

Cultural heritage on Wikipedia

The growing use of Wikidata has shown us the significant potential of the project and its application, so we have started including this project in GLAM activities. The relatively modest response, but the interest of the editors in participating in the actions on Wikidata, showed us that we must gradually introduce this platform into our activities. We have created a theoretical and practical guide to Wikidata, which has contributed to increased interest and easier involvement of editors in this project.

Challenges and lessons learned[edit]

Finding dates to hold online activities

Until 2020, we maintained the tradition of physical gatherings with the organization of edit-a-thons. With this way of working, we motivated the editors to join our activities, edit Wiki projects and get to know each other. With the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, our physical gatherings were interrupted and all activities were switched exclusively to an online format. In order to get the editors interested in joining us, the online activities lasted for several days. However, Serbian Wikipedia has an active community of editors, which regularly organizes its edit-a-thons, competitions and activities, and therefore it was challenging to find available period for the activities. After consulting with the community, we agreed to create event pages on Wikipedia, where we announce activities in advance and thus prevent overlapping actions.

 Community Support Program

WikiLive

Goal: Enabling members of Serbian Wikipedia community to get to know each other, networking and strengthening the connections between them by team problem solving and new project creation.

Description: WikiLive is a local annual Wikipedian conference, which is conceived with the idea of ​​strengthening the spirit of the community, interconnecting participants and involving them in the WMRS programs. The conference consists of a two-day program covering various topics from Wikipedia.


Competitions on Wikipedia

Goal: Increasing the motivation and active participation of the community in Wiki projects.

Description: Competitions on Wikipedia are organized several times a year. They usually last for a month (except CEE Spring) during which participants write and improve articles on various topics. Members of the jury evaluate the articles, after which winners are proclaimed and rewarded. Contests are a good way to reduce the gap between Wikimedians and Wikipedians.


Community motivation

Goal: Establishing better communication with the community and reducing the gap between Wikipedians and Wikimedians.

Description: Within the project, activities such as community gatherings, microgrants, organization of Wiki stand at public events, birthday celebrations, support for individuals in relation to the realization of activities and informing the community about various events through various communication channels are being realized.

  WikiLive

Since WikiLive is the annual conference of Wikipedians and implies the gathering of a larger group of people, Wikimedia Serbia has decided not to organize it in 2020. There was an idea to hold the conference online or in the second half of the year, but it was still noticed that its biggest advantage is networking and getting to know the editors and volunteers. Although the conference was not held, the winner of the Branislav Jovanović Аward was chosen. The award was given to the Wiki Librarian project leader for a successful long-term project management and overall work on Wikipedia.

  Competitions on Wikipedia

Competitions on Wikipedia aim to increase free knowledge by creating and improving Wikipedia articles in the form of competitions, but also to increase the motivation and active participation of the community on Wiki projects. During 2020, Wikimedia Serbia organized three competitions on Serbian Wikipedia: CEE Spring 2020, Team competition on Wikipedia/Geography and Buildings of the world.

The competition on Wikipedia in writing articles about the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) brought 571 articles on various topics this year. Eighteen participants wrote 524 articles and improved 47 articles. As part of this year's competition, participants entered 9,709,327 bytes. The trend of paying more attention to the quality than to the quantity of articles continues.

The first team competition on Wikipedia on the topic of geography was organized in the third quarter of the year. It was held in September, and during this competition, 79 articles were written on Serbian Wikipedia. The concept of the competition was completely new and has not been applied so far. The competition was attended by two teams that received a different topic each week within the already defined area - geography. In addition, the teams had two tasks for which they won bonus points or an extra day of competition. All this was aimed at the participants to intensify cooperation and to achieve results as a team. In total 79 articles were written during the competition, through which 2,402,222 bytes were entered, and the articles Miri (Malaysia) and Águas de São Pedro, which were written within the competition, received the status of good articles. These results indicate the participants' focus on quality in relation to quantity.

The last competition in 2020 was on the topic of buildings of the world. Apart from the magnificent buildings, the participants could also write about bridges, monuments, fortresses and all buildings that are an integral part of history and culture. Competitors were not limited to the territory of Serbia. They also increased the content of such buildings from around the world. During the competition, 133 articles were written and improved, totalling with 2,362,135 bytes entered.

  Community Motivation

Community Motivation includes microgrants, organization of gatherings and celebrations, edit-a-thons, as well as projects by individuals who make significant contributions to Wiki projects.

Microgrants - The call for microgrants was successfully conducted at the beginning of the year. A Grant Committee was organized, and a call for project proposals was promoted through various communication channels. In total 13 projects were submitted, six of which were approved and officially included in the project activities of Wikimedia Serbia:

Wiki Senior (leader: Milica Buha) is a project launched at the Belgrade City Library in 2019, as a continuation of the project “Belgrade Librarians about Belgrade”, with the idea to include people who have retired, completed their working life but still want to pursue their profession and contribute to the society. In addition to retirees, other interested users and librarians joined the project. With this project, the Belgrade City Library has joined the process of spreading free knowledge, as well as the system of permanent adult education in Serbia. Wiki seniors wrote and improved 343 articles on Wikipedia. They also uploaded 1213 photos to Wikimedia Commons out of which 1079 files were used to illustrate the articles.

Tombstones and roadside monuments (leader: Branka Vučićević Vučković) is a Wikimedia Serbia project started in 2017. It refers to the study and promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage through recording and photographing roadside monuments and old rural tombstones, posting photographs on Wikimedia Commons and publishing articles on Wikipedia about them. The project covers a wide range of target groups - from institutions dealing with the study, protection and presentation of cultural heritage (institutes for the protection of cultural monuments, museums), through the general public, to individuals interested in researching genealogical trees or the past. 2200 photographs were uploaded, and 23 articles were written and improved.

Not every crawler is a pest (leader: Aleksandra Trajković) is a project aimed at creating, updating and expanding the existing content on day and night butterflies in Serbia, both on Wikipedia and on Wikimedia Commons, which will complete their life cycle and provide access to comprehensive knowledge about a particular species. Through field research on the outskirts of the city of Niš and the surrounding area, team members with experience in editing articles and volunteers from the Faculty of Science in Niš will collect data and photographs necessary for this task. 100 articles were written and improved on Wikipedia, and 283 photographs were uploaded on Wikimedia Commons. Nearly 200 files were used to illustrate the articles.

Mountaineers write about mountains (leader: Stefan Mitić) is a project with the idea that mountaineers enrich Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons with their knowledge and information from books, as well as photographs of mountains and everything that exists on them. With the realization of this project, we increase the spread of free knowledge and illustrate articles on Wikipedia in the field of mountaineering and on the topic of mountains and everything natural and anthropogenic that is a part of them. Within the project, 654 photographs were uploaded, and 58 articles were written and improved.

The road less traveled (leader: Dobrislava Ružić) is a project within which members of the Tera Photo Club (part of the Tera Center for Fine and Applied Arts) will photograph settlements in the municipalities of Kikinda, Ada, Kanjiža, Novi Kneževac, Čoka and Senta, which would allow the towns that are scarcely illustrated to be enriched with extremely high quality images. Since some activities were not feasible due to new circumstances, the metrics and plan were adjusted to the changed conditions. 258 photographs were collected, of which 143 were used to illustrate the articles.

The historical heritage of medieval Serbia (leader: Đorđe Marković) is a project whose implementation contributes to the collection of free content and its enlargement, as well as increasing the photo material of medieval buildings and structures from the territory of Serbia, which is much less represented than the good coverage of the articles from that period on Wikipedia. The idea of the project itself is a tour of primarily fortresses and sacred buildings that were built in that period, some of which are on the UNESCO list of cultural heritage. 455 photographs were collected, while 51 articles were written and improved.

Projects of individuals who significantly contribute to Wiki projects:

  • Wikipedia is female is a project that has suffered a huge impact from the coronavirus pandemic. After initial planning and consideration, the project leaders decided to give up the activities, because although online workshops were feasible, tracking entries after them would be difficult. The same goes for increasing the number of women editors. It was challenging to motivate them after the initial contact. Therefore, it was decided to cancel the project, emphasizing that it is possible to realize it in the future.
  • The cities of Vojvodina is a project within which tourist organizations are introduced with the activities, and material has been collected regarding better acquaintance with the economic and tourist potential of the cities and seats of the municipalities that have been written about. Although led by one volunteer, this project has elements of GLAM cooperation, because it is supported by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Subotica and Novi Sad, from which consent was obtained for the use of data from the Institute's website. During it, over 300 articles were written, and almost 6000 photos were uploaded.
  • Through the Wiki Loves Longhorn Beetles project, articles were created about 5 subfamilies of Longhorn beetles, which means that all subfamilies whose representatives live in Serbia now have an article on Wikipedia. 152 articles were written, and the existing 13 were improved. It is important to point out that this team is very independent and that it passes on its skills to associates, which realizes the initial idea that volunteer capacities expand organically and that they can contribute to Wikimedia projects without the help of Wikimedia Serbia.

Although all gatherings and celebrations were postponed due to the pandemic, many events were organized online. Wikipedia's birthdays in Serbian and English were organized live, while the celebration of the 15th anniversary of Wikimedia Serbia was held virtually. Also, during 2020, two sessions of the Assembly were held.

Thematic weeks and edit-a-thons are very important, especially when it comes to connecting Wikimedia Serbia volunteers and the Serbian Wikipedia community. Since all activities are organized online, we had an increased concentration of thematic weeks and edit-a-thons on Wikipedia:

  • Thematic weeks are events with the goal to encourage work on certain topics on Serbian Wikipedia. Although mostly initiated by the community, Wikimedia Serbia supported these events with blog posts. One of the prominent ones was on the topic of human rights, by which Wikimedia Serbia joined the WikiForHumanRights global campaign. During this week, 110 articles were written.
  • Thematic week on the occasion of Danube Day in seven days resulted in 88 written and improved articles on Serbian Wikipedia. It was part of an international campaign involving some of the countries through which the Danube river flows - Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Austria, Bulgaria and Slovakia. International results can be seen on the meta page of the event.
  • In the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos campaign, the Serbian Wikipedia community illustrated 580 articles on 21 Wikimedia projects. Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) is an annual event where Wikipedians across Wikipedia language projects and communities add photos to Wikipedia articles lacking images. This is to promote the use of digital media files collected from various WP photography contests, photowalks organized by the Wikimedia community, on Wikipedia article pages.
  • The edit-a-thon on the occasion of the International Women's Day , i.e WikiGap, was organized, as before, in cooperation with the Swedish Embassy. The intention was to increase the visibility of women on Wikipedia and thus reduce the gender gap that is present on the Internet. The edit-a-thon was supported by the Serbian-Korean Information Access Center and during it 45 articles were written about notable women from various fields. WikiGap aims to strike a balance of gender equality on the Internet. The third WikiGap workshop brought together about twenty editors who were trained by representatives of Wikimedia Serbia to successfully create articles on Wikipedia.
  • On the occasion of the World Roma Day, Wikimedia Serbia for the first time organized an edit-a-thon in writing new and improving existing articles on Wikipedia on the topic of identity, history, culture and rights of Roma people. This edit-a-thon also gained international character and it lasted from April 7 to 12. In total 50 participants from 19 language versions of Wikipedia joined, and 46 articles were written on Serbian Wikipedia.
  • On the occasion of the International Environment Day, Wikimedia Serbia organized an online edit-a-thon. It started symbolically on Friday, June 5, and lasted throughout the weekend. During this period, 10 participants wrote 30 articles. With this event, Wikimedia Serbia wants to contribute to raising awareness about the preservation of nature and natural resources.
  • Wikimedia Serbia, in cooperation with the Belgrade Pride Committee, for the fourth time organized the edit-a-thon in writing new and improving existing articles on LGBTIQ+ people, organizations, cinematography and all other topics that support human freedoms, rights and diversity - Wiki Loves Pride. The edit-a-thon lasted throughout the Belgrade Pride Week, which this year was marked from September 14 to 20. 41 articles were written and improved.
  • In anticipation of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Wikimedia Serbia organized an online edit-a-thon in writing new and improving existing articles on topics of rights, barriers, life, organizations and persons with disabilities. The edit-a-thon lasted from December 1 to 3 and resulted in 44 new articles being written on Serbian Wikipedia.

In the third quarter, the "Branislav Jovanović award" was awarded. The recipient of the award is a long-time Wiki-librarian and one of the initiators of the Wiki-Librarian project - Aleksandra Popović. The award is given annually to Wikipedians and Wikimedians for their significant contribution to the spread of free knowledge and a wider opus of editing Wikipedia, based on its fundamental principles of free expression. Since it was not possible to organize a conference this year, Wikimedia Serbia decided to definitely proclaim the winner, and Aleksandra Popović rightfully deserved it.

Data protection - With the goal of personal data protection regarding the processing of personal data, Wikimedia Serbia has adopted the Privacy Policy. In cooperation with a lawyer, during the first part of the year, active work was done on the harmonization of activities and control of the implementation of the adopted Policy in practice. Special focus is given to the protection of personal data of participants in international conferences and events. On that occasion, the organization is in active communication with the legal team of the Wikimedia Foundation on the adoption of the Agreement between data importer and exporter. During the year, suggestions were given on the occasion of the adoption of the new Bylaws of the Organization, as well as the Rulebook on internal organization and systematization of jobs. After completing the course on data protection and security, our Office Manager, Bojan Cvetanović, was appointed Officer for the protection of personal data in the Organization. In this way, the need to hire a lawyer ceases, which achieves efficiency in the use of financial and human resources of the organization.

Wikimedia Serbia organized communication training for the community members to help them acquire better communication skills. The training was conducted by a specialized agency and included a theoretical part, but also a practical part where the participants had exercises and presented examples of bad and good communication. The idea is to apply the acquired techniques in their work on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is one of the most common sources of information used by the mountaineers in their research on mountains, and through this project I wanted to provide them more reliable information
Stefan Mitić
"The name of the project I started in 2020 was "Mountaineers on mountains". I assembled a team of mountaineers and photography enthusiasts which visited more than 20 mountains and created many images of mountain tops, villages, relief, rivers, wildlife, etc. and in total 654 of them were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Within the same project, 58 articles were written or improved. Mountaineers are generally explorers, and my many years of experience have shown that Wikipedia is one of the most common sources they reach for in order to find out about something. Through this project, I wanted to introduce them to a way in which they could contribute to this movement/project, and by writing and improving articles in this area to increase free content and enable like-minded people to find reliable material for information and discussions. Some of the participants were interested in applying for future microgrants awarded by Wikimedia Serbia, but also to participate in photo competitions organized by this Association. As for me, through the experience in this project, I received ideas and lessons for its continuation in a different, even more successful, more productive way."

Stefan Mitić, project leader of the Mountaineers on mountains project

Images that I posted on Wikimedia Commons enabled reconstruction of the monuments that were destroyed in a car crash
Branka Vučićević Vučković
"I helped the Vitorović family from the village of Vučkovica to gather complete data on the roadside memorials that were previously destroyed in a car accident. Based on the photographs and the copy of the epitaph which I sent them, they were able to document the original condition of the monuments and collect compensation from the insurance company. The money will be used for the creation of the replica of the roadside memorials."

Branka Vučićević Vučković, project leader of the Roadside Memorials and Monuments project

From beginner to the Wikipedian of the year
Ljiljana Sundać
"Of course, this road takes a lot of work, it is the only way. But many tools were used in the process. The first was the desire to master something new, to enrich everyday obligations with some creative occupation. My "teacher" Milica Buha, who runs the Wiki Senior project, has helped me a lot and is still teaching me. I can't praise her enough, starting from the first classes in the library, until today, because she keeps contact and helps me whenever I reach out. I saw a leaflet in a library with an invitation for workshops on writing articles on Wikipedia and went for it. Slowly at first, but then faster and better. Secondly, the topics and campaigns on Wikipedia are very interesting to me. It's like traveling the world while writing an article about unknown and distant lands. I research, discover and find out. I hope that those who read them feel the same. Especially the local topics, where there is always something new to discover and pass on. Third, I have free time. Thank God, we are all fine, and since my children and grandchildren are abroad, and my husband fully supports me, I had a lot of time to write throughout the year and actively participate in enriching Wikipedia. To completely separate myself from news and TV programs, I bought headphones, so as I write, I turn on some light music. I must also admit that quarantine, isolation and the abolition of recreational exercises contributed to my more active participation online. I don’t know how I could encourage others to join and contribute to Wikipedia; many of my friends prefer conversations over coffee or walks by the river, or babysitting grandchildren, which is certainly nice. For this work you have to be diligent, persistent, curious, independent, interested..."

Ljiljana Sundać, Wiki Senior and the Wikipedian of the Year

Successful stories[edit]

Collected material within the project finds its place in other spheres as well

The Tombstones and Roadside Memorials project collected a large amount of material on Wikimedia Commons that was used to illustrate articles and create a more complete picture of these monuments in Serbia. However, except in the project, the photographs were used by experts in the field as well. Eng. Mihailo Alić used photographs and articles in order to create a 3D model of the Lapidarium in Guča and interactive projections of several monuments. This is especially important, because Wikimedia Serbia strives for greater use of free multimedia material collected within the project activities. In addition to its primary purpose, the use of photographs also serves to increase the visibility of Wikimedia projects to the general public and to make this knowledge available to everyone.

Wiki Librarians and Wiki Seniors supported almost all actions on Wikipedia

Wiki Librarians and Wiki Seniors supported almost all actions on Wikipedia and thus increased the results of them (competitions, edit-a-thons, thematic weeks...). One of the Wiki Seniors became Wikipedian of the Year. The story of the Wiki Senior project and its activities during the isolation was shared on EPALE (Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe). The article was published within the blog section EPALE Comunity Stories - Milica Buha, a Community Story from Serbia. The article about the project, "Wiki Senior project in the City Library of Belgrade", was published in the magazine "University Libraries".

Reducing the gender gap as part of WMRS work

Since Wikimedia Serbia deals with the issue of gender diversity on Wikipedia, as well as supports diversity in every aspect (projects Wiki Loves Pride, WikiGap, Wikipedia is female gender), we’ve got a call from organizers of the conference Application of Free Software and Open Hardware to do the paper on this topic. This paper, Gender Diversity on Wikipedia, was presented at the online event and it opens the possibility for further research and publication of papers.

In addition, Wikimedia Serbia has joined the #SheSaid global campaign, which aimed to increase the visibility of women by creating or improving quotes by them. The Wiki Loves Women initiative has launched #SheSaid campaign in order to create balance within Wikiquote content and display quotes from famous men and women at the same time. In the first organized action of Wikimedia Serbia on Wikiquote, eleven participants made or expanded 43 articles on Wikiquote with 162 citations.

Challenges and lessons learned[edit]

While 2020 has been a challenging year in terms of increase of number of editors, shifting the focus can help

Most of the projects didn’t have problems with the results in terms of articles and photos, because volunteers could work online and upload material. The biggest problem the pandemic imposed was the increase of new editors. Larger workshops weren’t possible due to the state of emergency and curfew in one part of the year. Many trainings are organized online and with resources (brochures, leaflets, presentations). However, some projects have given up due to the inability to track inputs after the workshops. As a result, the focus shifted to what could be achieved. We have tried to provide as many people as possible with online working conditions, and we have also organized numerous actions in which they can participate.

Reduce risk for the most vulnerable group, but give them opportunities to work

Although it achieved good results, Wiki Senor project was challenging itself, because the participants belonged to the most risky group when it comes to the pandemic. The project leader put the health of the participants first, and all workshops were canceled, but online work was offered as a possibility. Unfortunately, senior citizens did not feel independent enough to edit. The exception is one participant who acquired skills and became Wikipedian of the year (Serbian Wikipedia) at the end of the year.

 Strategy of Wikimedia Serbia

Wikimedia Serbia has adopted a new strategy for the period January 2021 - December 2023. The strategy is a path that the organization will choose and will open new views for the introduction of innovative project models, as well as strengthening volunteer capacity.

The process of developing the strategy was more comprehensive and transparent in the sense that the community also was engaged. Initially, a working group was established consisting of members of the community, Board members and an employee. After the evaluation of the current strategy in which process community participated, SWOT and PEST analysis were conducted, strategy was aligned with the strategy of the movement and the most important goals that the organization will strive for are defined:

  • Quality networking with different types of institutions and organizations in order to create free content and use shared resources
  • Reducing the gap between Wikipedians and Wikimedians and striving for better communication and mutual support
  • Expanding the network of volunteers, which would also include decentralization
  • Multiplication of free content with a focus on its quality
  • Promotion of free knowledge and Wikimedia movement and projects

The main strategic directions of Wikimedia Serbia in the period 2021 — 2023 are also defined:

  • Collection of free content that aims to gather free material of different formats through various activities and projects of the organization. Within this direction, the organization will have several strategic lines, among which are the strengthening of Wikimedia projects in the educational system, in the academic community and in cultural institutions, emphasizing that the tools and content will be even more accessible and approachable. There is also diversity in terms of editors and content, which will permeate through a number of activities.
  • Cooperation and networking with other organizations and institutions that we believe is necessary in order to develop the organization and use common goals and resources in order to reach as many people as possible and achieve good results.
  • Community support represents a wide range of activities that are realized in order to provide support to community members. This focus is intended to enable the expansion of our network of volunteers, to reduce the gap between Wikipedians and Wikimedians, as well as to strengthen the community in order to create common goals.

You can read more about the strategy on the Wikimedia Serbia’s website, where the Serbian and English versions are available. The accompanying document is a strategic plan (Serbian and English version) which sets out in more detail the way in which the strategy will be implemented and the goals achieved. Each of the set strategic directions explains what we want to focus on the most and what we want to improve first of all.

The strategy, together with the strategic plan, were adopted at the Board meeting, which was held on September 23, 2020.

  Media report

Media coverage of the Wikimedia Serbia’s activities and the global Wikimedia movement in 2020 was extraordinary. Despite the decreased number of activities caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the public was able to be informed on the results of numerous activities on Wikipedia, event announcements, bridging the gender gap, and many others.

Revenues received during this period (6 month for progress report, 12 months for impact report)[edit]

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
WMF Grant EUR 99,500.00 58,353.46 0.00 41,146.54 0.00 99,500.00 108,617.19 108,617.19 Annual Grant
WMF Grant EUR 0.00 0.00 0.00 11,440.00 0.00 11,440.00 0.00 12.488,25 Funds intended to strengthen financial reserves of WMRS.
The Government of the Republic of Serbia EUR 0.00 0.00 3,100.00 1,240.00 0.00 4,340.00 0.00 4,737.67 Financial help due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Revenues from other donations EUR 0.00 0.00 0.00 17.01 25.51 42.52 0.00 46.42
Membership fees EUR 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.21 10.21 0.00 11.15
TOTAL EUR 99,500.00 58,353.46 3,100.00 53,843.55 35.72 115,332.73 108,617.19 125,900.67

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


In-kind donations[edit]

Donator In-kind donation Value (in EUR)
Heliant d.o.o. Hosting service 156.00
Institute for Contemporary Education Space and refreshment for accredited seminar for teachers 300.00
Secondary School “Žikica Damnjanović” Space and catering for accredited seminar for teachers 350.00
Serbia-Korea Information Access Center Space for the #WikiGap event (edit-a-thon + cocktail party) 500.00
Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade Catering, refreshment and promo-pack for the #WikiGap edit-a-thon 150.00
TOTAL 1,456.00


Spending during this period (6 month for progress report, 12 months for impact report)[edit]

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
Office EUR 11,570.00 3,268.31 2,483.73 2,150.80 2,284.48 10,187.32 12,630.16 11,120.78 88.05%
Staff EUR 51,216.00 11,867.18 8,684.11 11,949.33 15,963.59 48,464.21 55,908.92 52,904.99 94.63%
Services EUR 2,844.00 740.17 563.86 570.33 697.92 2,572.28 3,104.60 2,807.98 90.45%
Contingency and Board budget EUR 2,500.00 565.34 91.73 120.38 135.22 912.67 2,729.08 996.30 36.51%
Participation in Events EUR 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00% Due to the cancellation of all international events, the Board made a decision to transfer all funds to the budget for "Wikipedian in Residence" project.
Education Program EUR 7,470.00 858.39 0.00 53.06 4,101.59 5,013.04 8,154.48 5,472.38 67.11%
GLAM Program EUR 11,750.00 490.91 705.44 3,768.97 5,978.61 10,943.93 12,826.65 11,946.72 93.14% Funds previously intended for participation in events are also included.
Community Support EUR 12,150.00 2,744.45 853.69 2,451.34 3,137.30 9,186.78 13,263.30 10,028.56 75.61%
TOTAL EUR 99,500.00 20,534.75 13,382.56 21,064.21 32,298.71 87,280.23 108,617.19 95,277.72 87.72%

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Spending of financial help from the Government of the Republic of Serbia (COVID-19)[edit]

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
TOTAL EUR 4,340.00 - 3,100.00 1,240.00 - 4,340.00 4,737.67 4,737.67 100.00% By the decision of the Government, this financial aid is paid directly to the bank accounts of the employees.

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Translated report[edit]

Serbian version of the report is available here.

Compliance[edit]

Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement?[edit]

As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

  • There were no significant deviations from our original grant proposal.

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Signature[edit]

Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.

Resources[edit]

Resources to plan for measurement[edit]

Resources for storytelling[edit]